How to sell to nursing homes and assisted living: administrators, nursing and timing

To sell to nursing homes and assisted living, list every facility in your territory, separate the independents from the ones run by multi-facility operators, and contact the administrator with a pitch tied to what they're measured on: staffing, resident care, inspection results and occupancy. Bring the director of nursing in for anything clinical. Facilities are easy to find on Google Maps, and the administrator is usually on site, so a local, specific approach works better here than in most of healthcare.

Who decides at a nursing home or assisted living community?#

The administrator runs the building and approves most vendors. The director of nursing owns clinical decisions. Department heads recommend what their teams use. At facilities owned by a larger operator, the regional or corporate office sets many contracts.

Nursing homes are regulated closely. CMS says skilled nursing facilities and nursing facilities must comply with the requirements in 42 CFR Part 483, Subpart B to receive Medicare or Medicaid payment, and that state surveys of these facilities are not announced in advance. That shapes what they buy: anything that helps them pass a survey, document care or keep staff gets attention.

Assisted living is regulated by states, not by that federal rule, and it buys more like a residential community. Dining, activities, move-in marketing and occupancy weigh more than clinical products.

Independent or multi-facility operator: who can buy?#

Find out who owns the building before you pitch. Independent facilities, and small operators with two or three buildings, decide locally. Larger operators set contracts for food, supplies, pharmacy, therapy and software centrally, so the local administrator can recommend you but may not be able to sign.

There's no ownership column on a Google Maps listing. The quickest proxy is the website domain: facilities that share one domain usually share one operator.

How do I build a list of nursing homes and assisted living facilities?#

Search Google Maps for every senior care term across your territory, merge the results and mark the operators.

1. Draw the territory. A county, a set of ZIP codes, or a shape around the area your team or trucks can reach.
2. Search several terms. For nursing homes: "nursing home", "skilled nursing facility", "rehabilitation center", "long term care facility". For assisted living: "assisted living facility", "memory care", "senior living community", "retirement community", "residential care home".
3. Check categories. Google Maps categories include Nursing home, Assisted living facility, Retirement home, Senior citizen center and Rehabilitation center. Rehabilitation center also catches outpatient rehab and addiction treatment, so read the names.
4. Search in pieces. One Google Maps search shows about 120 results, so split large areas. See why Google Maps stops at 120 results.
5. Mark operators. Sort by website domain and by name patterns.
6. Add home health if you also serve care at home. Home health agencies buy similar products and services. See home health agency leads.

The nursing home lead list page and the assisted living lead list page show the full search terms and columns.

How do I segment senior care facilities with the list's columns?#

Use the columns to separate facility types, find likely operators and pick the right contact.

What should I pitch a nursing home?#

Tie the pitch to staffing, survey readiness, resident outcomes or occupancy. Administrators are stretched, and a product that saves nursing time or helps at inspection time gets heard.

• Clinical supplies and devices: lead with staff time and resident outcomes, with evidence. Involve the director of nursing early.
• Software (EHR, scheduling, documentation): lead with nursing hours saved and documentation that holds up at survey. Expect questions about resident data and a business associate agreement.
• Staffing: lead with how fast you fill open shifts and the credentials your staff carry.
• Facility services (HVAC, generators, fire and life safety, laundry, cleaning): lead with uptime, response times and inspection readiness. A state surveyor completes a Life Safety Code survey before certification, so maintenance directors listen to anything that helps with it.
• Food and dining: lead with resident satisfaction and cost per meal. Bring samples.
• Marketing (mostly assisted living): lead with move-ins and tours booked.

When is the best time to reach an administrator?#

Mid-morning or early afternoon, Tuesday through Thursday, after morning care and the daily department meeting. Avoid meal times, shift changes (often early morning, mid-afternoon and late evening) and weeks when the facility is in survey.

These windows are common practice, not measured results.

The receptionist is the gatekeeper, and in a care setting they protect residents' privacy. Ask for the administrator or the right department head by role, ask how they prefer to meet vendors, and never ask about residents.

What should the email say? A short script#

Under 100 words, about their facility, with one small next step. These templates use Leadraft export columns as merge fields: {{business}}, {{city}}, {{category}}.

Email 1: services, to the administrator#

Subject: [service] for {{business}}

Hello,

We work with {{category}} communities around {{city}} on
[service]. [One specific, provable outcome, e.g. "same-day
response on resident-room repairs"].

Would a 15-minute call make sense, or is there a department
head I should speak with instead?

[Name] · [Company] · [Postal address]
Not the right person? Reply "no" and I won't write again.

Email 1: staffing, to the director of nursing#

Subject: open shifts at {{business}}

Hello,

We place [CNAs / LPNs / RNs] with nursing homes around {{city}}.
If you have shifts you can't fill this month, I can send
profiles of available staff with their credentials, so you can
see whether we'd help before committing to anything.

[Name] · [Company] · [Postal address] · Reply "no" to opt out.

How should I follow up?#

Four or five touches over four to six weeks, mixing email, a call and, once invited, a visit. Senior care runs on relationships, and administrators often buy from people they've met.

What rules apply to outreach to nursing homes?#

US commercial email falls under CAN-SPAM: accurate sender information and subject lines, a physical postal address and a working opt-out honored within 10 business days. Calls to business lines are mostly outside the National Do Not Call Registry, but the TCPA's consent rules cover autodialed or prerecorded calls and texts to cell phones. If your product will handle resident health information, HIPAA applies and the facility will expect a business associate agreement. Vendors to facilities that bill Medicare or Medicaid should also know the federal Anti-Kickback Statute if anything relates to referrals. Google's Maps Platform terms restrict scraping and building lists from Maps content, a contract issue separate from these laws. See cold email laws and get legal advice for your situation.

Worked example: senior care in Ohio#

The Census Bureau counted, in Ohio in 2023: 961 nursing care facility establishments with paid employees (NAICS 623110), 379 assisted living facilities for the elderly (623312) and 1,729 home health care establishments (621610). That's 3,069 together. A Google Maps list will not match exactly, because Maps includes small residential care homes, senior centers and listings for therapy wings, and drops places without a listing.

Assumptions, for illustration only: about 3,500 listings across Ohio after deduplication, and two checked emails taken out for each of 1,000 facilities.

If you only need nursing homes in a few counties, the Starter plan at $19 a month covers 25,000 businesses and 1,000 checked emails. Accept-all and invalid grades don't use checked-email credits, and listings outside your area are never charged. See pricing.

If you'd rather not build senior care lists by hand, Leadraft finds every nursing home and assisted living community inside the territory you draw, with checked emails from each facility's own website. Try it on the free plan, or see the columns on the nursing home lead list page.

FAQ#

How do I sell to nursing homes?#

List every nursing home and assisted living community in your territory, separate independents from facilities run by multi-facility operators, and contact the administrator with a pitch tied to what they're measured on: staffing, resident care, inspection results and occupancy. Bring the director of nursing in for anything clinical, and expect a short trial or references before a contract.

Who makes purchasing decisions at a nursing home?#

The administrator runs the building and approves most vendors. The director of nursing decides on clinical products and anything that affects nursing staff. Department heads (maintenance, dietary, housekeeping, activities, business office) recommend in their own areas. At facilities owned by a larger operator, many contracts are set by the regional or corporate office.

How many nursing homes are there in the US?#

The CDC's National Center for Health Statistics counted about 14,700 nursing homes in 2022, with 1.6 million licensed beds and 1.2 million residents. The Census Bureau counted 18,126 nursing care facility establishments with paid employees and 20,884 assisted living facilities for the elderly with paid employees in 2023.

What is the difference between selling to nursing homes and assisted living?#

Nursing homes that take Medicare or Medicaid must meet federal requirements in 42 CFR Part 483 and face unannounced state inspections, so compliance and clinical care drive buying. Assisted living is regulated by states, serves residents who need less medical care, and buys more like a residential community: dining, activities, marketing and occupancy matter more.

When is the best time to contact a nursing home administrator?#

Mid-morning or early afternoon on Tuesday to Thursday, after morning care and the daily stand-up meeting. Avoid meal times, shift changes and any week when the facility is in its state survey. Email works any weekday.

Sources#

1. CDC National Center for Health Statistics, FastStats: Nursing Home Care (2022 counts).
2. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Nursing Homes: certification and compliance (42 CFR Part 483 Subpart B; unannounced surveys; Life Safety Code survey).
3. U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns 2023 (NAICS 623110, 623312, 621610, by state).
4. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Business Associates under HIPAA.
5. Federal Trade Commission, CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business.
6. Federal Communications Commission, Stop unwanted robocalls and texts.
7. Google, Google Maps Platform Terms of Service.